Aimia appoints Michael Zea, President & CEO, U.S. Region

MONTREAL, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Rupert Duchesne, Aimia's Group Chief Executive is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Zea as President and Chief Executive Officer for the U.S. Region. Zea will be responsible for leading Aimia's operations in the U.S., with a critical focus on new business development and driving key strategic growth initiatives for that market.

"Michael's extensive strategic expertise and international experience will leverage the capabilities embedded in our U.S. Region to achieve its full potential," said Duchesne. "We will also hugely benefit from his many years driving successful organizational transformations across a wide range of industries."

In this role, Zea will take on full commercial and operational responsibility for our growth in this critical region and be a member of the Aimia's global executive committee.

Zea brings more than 20 years of strategic consulting experience, most recently as a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he has been an acknowledged client and knowledge entrepreneur within the firm and in 2012 selected to lead McKinsey's Loyalty Marketing Service line globally. Prior to McKinsey, Zea enjoyed over a decade of success with Oliver Wyman, having joined that firm as the founding associate of the Chicago office, and was one of three selected to launch that firm's Aviation practice and managed the firm's New York office from 2003-2005.

A graduate of Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern, earlier in his career, Zea worked in sales, pricing, yield management and distribution at several major airlines, including United and American. On the philanthropy front, Zea is a Trustee on the Board of The Nature Conservancy of Connecticut, and Alexandra's Playground.

Liz Graham, previously Chief Executive Officer for both the U.S. & Asia Pacific, will turn now her focus to solidifying the Asia Pacific Region while continuing to provide leadership to the global enterprise as Aimia's Chief Operating Officer.

About Aimia
Aimia is a global leader in loyalty management. Aimia's unique capabilities include proven expertise in delivering proprietary loyalty services, launching and managing coalition loyalty programs, creating value through loyalty analytics and driving innovation in the emerging digital and mobile spaces. Aimia owns and operates Aeroplan, Canada's premier coalition loyalty program and Nectar, the United Kingdom's largest coalition loyalty program. In addition, Aimia has majority equity positions in Air Miles Middle East and Nectar Italia as well as a minority position in Club Premier, Mexico's leading coalition loyalty program and Cardlytics, a US-based private company operating in transaction-driven marketing for electronic banking.

Aimia is a Canadian public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: AIM) and has over 3,800 employees in more than 20 countries around the world. For more information about Aimia, please visit www.aimia.com.